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Home : 2002 : June : 5

Book List
By Lori 2

Hi Debi,

The first book I thought of when you said Asia was Homeless Bird by Gloria Whelan. It is set in India and is a wonderful story about a young girl who survives an arranged marriage (very tastefully approached in
the novel), the death of her husband, living with semi-hostile in-laws, and then surviving on her own in the city of widows. It's AR Reading Level is 5.3.
If you liked Year of Impossible Goodbyes, you might like to do a comparison study from the Japanese settlers point of view during this turbulent period of Korean History. So Far From the Bamboo Grove tells the story from a young

Japanese girl's viewpoint as they flee Korea for Japan.

The Breadwinner is about a young girl in Afghanistan under the Taliban Rule. Pretty current stuff.

Katherine Paterson writes some good stuff set in Japan -- The Nightingale Weeps, The Master Puppeteer.

The Newbery Award Winner for this year -- A Single Shard -- is an excellent story set in 15th century Korea and has a male main character.

Another one I like is I Rode a Horse of Milk White Jade by Diane Wilson. It is set in Genghis Khan's Mongolia and would be for your higher level readers I think.

Goodbye, Vietnam by Gloria Whelan is about a family fleeing from Vietnam in the last days of the Vietnam War.

One for Africa is Thunder Cave by Roland Smith. It is set in Kenya and talks about poachers and the Masai traditions.

Another is A Girl Called Disaster by Nancy Farmer. It won a Newbery Honor.

You might could use Earthquake at Dawn by Kristiana Gregory for your earth unit. Another possibility might be Jason's Gold by Will Hobbs -- it probably is more geography and history but you could tie geology into the Klondike Gold Rush.

Night of the Twisters by Ivy Ruckman would work for weather. The Wanderer by Sharon Creech or The Cay by Theodore Taylor might work for hurricanes. Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse is a natural for the dust bowl and drought. Sarah Plain and Tall would work for drought for your struggling readers. Jerry Stanley's non-fiction work Children of the Dust Bowl would make a nice companion title.

There is also an excellent non-fiction title by Jim Murphy called Blizzard which would tie in nicely with a weather unit.

I know I have read some titles that would work for the central and South America unit, but the titles are escaping me at the moment -- it's my bedtime. You have me stumped for the moment about the human body and chemistry, but I'll see if I can find anything in my lists tomorrow.

Lori